Lost Phone in Taxi in Hong Kong (have plate number)

I left my phone in the taxi on Saturday night. Realised it immediately and have the taxi license plate (GR6439).

Not getting anywhere with the HK taxi companies who all say it's not their taxi, hasn't turned up in lost & found taxi even with a reward offered and no luck from the Hong Kong police.

It was in the early hours of the morning and I was dropped off in a place where it would have taken the driver at least 15 minutes to get another fare - so it's 99.9% that the driver kept it.

Any ideas if I can do anything to track him

When you say "no luck from the police", have you reported it lost? (Your insurance will almost certainly require a copy of that report.) If not, the e-form for reporting the loss is here





Just out of curiosity, what prompted you to note the taxi licence number in the first place?

I'm assuming that the person that lost the phone has a receipt (which always includes the taxi number on it).

kar.... I thought of that. But being dropped off somewhere remote in the small hours of Sunday morning doesn't sound like the sort of journey one would claim expenses for; therefore one probably would not ask for a receipt. Equally, if the taxi DID give a receipt, he must know the police can easily trace him; so he would be unlikely to misappropriate the property.

I had the same problem. I dropped my mobile in a taxi on the way home. By chance, the guard at the entrance of my building noted the registration no. I called my no within minutes (3 max) and it got disconnected while ringing. I called the lost and found hotline, they gave me a case no and said they would contact the driver. The driver said it never found it and that the following client must have taken it.No way to check! very inconvenient as I lost all my nos, I didn't really mind the handset as it was old.

Eddy, same issue. It seems that lost&found will contact the taxi driver but all he has to do is blame it on the next passenger.

There's no chance of this though, as I called the number immediately, and he wouldn't have got another fare for atleast 15 minutes, probably 30 minutes.

I tip these guys $10-20 a day 5 days a week, so guess I can reclaim the phone value eventually!

Anyway,

GR6439....GR6439...GR6439...

I hope that one day some taxi driver will return someone's phone.

some time back my husband lost his phone the same way , he had the taxi number, receipt , and realised that he had left his phone in the car as soon as the taxi drove away from the building.


He called the taxi authorities, and nothing came of it. He was even asked if he would "reward" the driver if he gets the phone back.

never did -get the phone back

There are honest taxi drivers out here....


a few years ago a taxi driver turned up one morning looking for someone in our village he had dropped off the night before. Found him after a few questions...the story was...the passenger was a bit under the weather - handed over $1000 note and just got out of the car .. thinking it was $100 note - the driver finished his shift and then realise what had happened - came back the next morning to return the $900 change - in cash and the passenger still hadn't realised what had happened - tried to give gave the driver a big tip for being so honest - but it was refused.....


So - at least in the NT we have honest cabbies sometimes!

Hmm, dimac... given that taxi drivers must get $100 from dozens of passengers each day, how did he suddenly "realise" at the end of the shift which one of them it was who had given him the $1000 by mistake? Don't you think he realised immediately, but needed a few hours for his conscience to eat him up?

Another honest taxi driver....


I had a friend staying with me - he came over for the rugby sevens from Oz. Say no more. He was left there drinking with his buddy, who then proceeded to lose him. So my friend did not know my address or my newly married name to call directories - I seriously did not know what he would do. A couple of hours later he turned up at the front door (after ringing a lot of doorbells in the block!!) He had got in a cab, told the driver he had no money and didn't know where he was going but it was by a graveyard (Pokfulam)....the guy apparently drove him round for AGES finding my block (and my friend was wasted and must have been extremely irritating!) And then he dropped him off for no charge and wished him luck - how lovely...wished we could have found him afterwards

I think he finished his shift pretty soon after that but considering it was about 2am in the morning when he dropped the guy off - probably thought it was prudent to wait until daylight hours to return otherwise he may disturb the people in the village knocking on doors asking where he lived. He even brought someone along who spoke better english than he did as he knew the place was filled with expats.

You hear more good stories than bad, more so in Hong Kong than any other city I have been to. I am actually surprised the Ed has not deleted this thread.


Anyway, a family member left an expensive purse and phone in a cab. It wasn't noticed for another 30 minutes. A call was made to the phone and the cab driver picked up. Apparently, he was changing shifts but agreed to return to the original drop off point to hand off the purse. When the taxi arrived, the driver was in the front pax seat and his colleague was driving, so both drivers went out of their way to return the purse. A reward was initially rejected, but it was forced upon the drivers.

Lost mine the same way last night, does anyone have the number to call please??? I know I dont stand a hope in hell of getting it back but feel the need to exhaust all options!

Try these... good luck..


Useful Taxi-related Telephone Numbers



Transport Complaints Unit hotline +852 2889 9999



Transport Department enquiries hotline +852 2804 2600



HKTB multilingual visitor hotline

(open 8am-6pm daily) +852 2508 1234



Airport Authority Hong Kong +852 2181 8888



Road Co-op Lost and Found 24-hour, free hotline for property lost in taxis +852 1872 920



Hong Kong Police Force hotline +852 2527 7177

I've had a different experience worth sharing.


Like others, I left my iPhone in the taxi. I asked for a receipt, which listed the taxi number. Borrowing a friend's phone, I tried calling my phone number several times but no one answered. I filed a report on the hotline 1872 920 and obtained a case number. They said once they have information they will contact me.


About fifteen minutes later I called my phone again and the driver picked up and said he is now going to the airport. For the rest of the day I was in meetings and unable to follow-up until after 6pm. At that time, I called all of the red taxi companies I could find and each said that taxi was not working for their company.


Calling my phone again, the power was off and I figured this meant my phone wouldn't be retrievable. As a last resort, I went to the police station and filed a report. After taking down all the information I had (including serial, IMEI, etc.), and noting the driver picked up one of my calls which confirmed he had possession of my phone, their back room checked a few things while I waited. The police did contact the company responsible for the taxi, but because it was after hours, the company needed to respond later with the driver's information.


After about 15 minutes the police officer called me back up to the counter and said I was very lucky because the phone had been turned in to the Lost & Found department at another police station and that during the following day during business hours I could pick it up if I supplied proper proof that the phone was mine.


Here are the tips I have from this experience that I think will help others have success in retrieving their lost phones:


1. Keep phone sales receipts and original boxes - both of these can prove you own the lost phone when retrieving from the police station.

2. Record the phone's serial number, IMEI, ICCID, make, model, and any other identifying information in a safe location. This enabled the policy officer to identify that a phone turned in to another station was mine. It would also be important information for making an insurance claim.

3. Always get a receipt from the taxi, even in a rush. This contains the date, time, and taxi number unique to the driver which would be useful in recovering the phone or in a court case.

4. Report to the taxi hotline - they fax this information to all taxi companies, which may enable you to retrieve your phone.

5. Act quickly soon after you lose your phone.


For iPhone / iPod / iPad owners:


6. Install and configure the Find My iPhone program, iCloud, and turn on location services. Test to ensure this is working before you lose your phone! If I were able to use the internet soon after I lost my phone, this would allow me to wipe the phone, erasing all information. In my case, I got on the internet 8 hours after I lost my phone, at which point it had already been turned off. The phone itself was left on for at least 2 hours after I lost it, which would have been enough time to wipe the phone.

7. Turn on automatic lock - this requires you to enter a password after a specified amount of time. This does not prevent anyone from accessing your data (hence the need to wipe, as per above), but it does stop immediate use of your phone. Mine is set to lock after 1 min.

8. Use a program like 1Password to keep secure information encrypted on your phone, like passwords and account numbers. Because I use this, I knew that if the phone fell into malicious hands, the most information a person would have is my email, photos, music, notes, contacts, and other program data. Obviously this is more than I would want to lose, but it's not a huge security risk.


I think what I've learned above can greatly increase the chances of retrieving your phone, and minimizing the damage and risk of loss. Ultimately, the main reason my phone was returned was because of the honest taxi driver, but every other action I took enabled the fullest support by the taxi company hotline, the policy, and insurance, if applicable.


I'd like to reward the taxi driver, but ironically, I don't have any way to contact him.


Hope others can be as lucky as I was!